URR Governor talks about environmental protection from emission

Upper
River Region (URR) governor Fatou Jammeh-Touray has expressed her office’s
commitment to ensuring a clean environment that is protected from all forms of
emission particularly from substances produced from domestic and local
industrial activities especially from the cooling systems.

Speaking
at the opening ceremony of a four-day training organized by the National
Environment Agency (NEA) for refrigeration and air conditioning technicians on
the handling of refrigerants, flammability and safety held at the Basse Area
Council chambers, Governor Jammeh-Touray appealed to participants to exercise
professionalism in their technical job and to be cautious in handlings
flammable refrigerants that are substitute to ODS gas.

She
acknowledged that The Gambia government has regarded environmental protection a
top development priority and would endeavor to sustainably improve the
environment for all.

“It
is important for you to actively participate in this capacity building training
where you will discover new skills and innovations which will serve you in your
profession as technicians. Try to share
the new ideas you are going to discover with those that could not have the
opportunity to attend,” she said.

The
region`s population officer, Momodou Billo Jallow said technicians are
important players in the phasing out of Ozone Depleting Substances and
refrigerants that contributes to the warming of the earth, saying they must
collaborate to get rid of such substances that will not only destroy the
environment but threaten “our” very existence.

In his opening statement, Muhammed Denton,
Director of administration and finance at NEA, described the training as
timely, coming at a time when the refrigeration and air conditioning subsectors
are experiencing lot of transformation in terms of technology and the
introduction of new refrigerants in a bid to replacing the ones that are Ozone
depleting substances which are potent greenhouse gases that contribute to the warming
of the earth.

Mr. Denton said gases, like
Hydro-Chloro-Fluoro-Carbons (HCFC), and Hydro Fluoro-Carbons (HFC) like
refrigerant 22 and HFCs used mainly in air conditioning systems and fish
processing factories do not only deplete the Ozone layer but contribute to
global warming consequences. “we are
currently experiencing these effects in the form of heat waves, extreme cold
seasons as in Europe and other parts of the world, sea level rise resulting to
coastal erosion and inundation to name but a few.”